After doing a little research on the topic of last week's post, I found out that books are banned or challenged for certain age groups. For instance, a book like the one I read a couple of weeks ago, Olive's Ocean, is banned specifically from elementary schools. The age of the protagonist in that book is 12. When I read it, I thought it was the perfect book for middle school kids. From a personal standpoint, I can see why this book might be too advanced for elementary school children. The author of this book, Kevin Henkes, traditionally writes elementary books.
The age of the protagonist should automatically clue readers in to the fact that the book might be geared more toward children around that same age. I think looking at the ages of the characters is an effective way of determining the targeted population for several reasons. First, young kids have a lot less experience than older people. If a book is about a 20 year old person, a 12 year old might not be able to identify with the character. Second, in the same scenario, a 20 year old has likely gone through a lot more than a 12 year old. The character would be more experienced than the reader. Third, the issues 20 year old people deal with on a daily basis are very different than the issues a 12 year old deals with. In other words, the content might be inappropriate for 12 year olds.
Looking at the age of the characters does not always work, as many books have older characters but are actually targeted toward younger audiences and vice versa. So, gauging the ages pf the characters to determine the audience is not foolproof. It is a starting point, though.
So here is your initial question: What other ways are there for identifying the target audience of a book, short story, or even poem? In other words, how do you know what age group the author intended the reader to be? To answer this question, consider the following sub-questions: 1) What might make a book too advanced for you? 2) How do you know if the intended audience is younger than you? 3) What books have you read and enjoyed that are age-appropriate for middle school kids?
Answer the initial question and sub-questions in 4 complete, thoughtful sentences. Go back and look at your response and the other responses from last week. Remember, I want 4 sentences that show me you actually gave this topic some thought.
really big words and stuff im not able to understand. whenever the words feel like someone is talking to you like a two year old. harry potter chamber of secrects carrie by sthephan king. and world war z by max brooks.
ReplyDeleteA book would have harder words in it and the book would be harder to understand.
ReplyDeleteThey would not understand what is going on and they would ask a lot of questions.
INITIAL; For little kids the book would have big words, for youth and teens the book would have a lot of vocabulary words and for adults the book would have a very high level of words.
Cduran: A book to advanced for me would be a book that I dont understand. You would know if the audience is younger than you beacuse the words would be easyer to read. I think diray of a wimpy kid books are age approriate for middle school kids.
ReplyDeleteMabye a book that has words that I can't understaned and words that I don't make any sence to me.They would read smaller books than 6th graders would read.I've read wereworld that I used to do my libray project.I've also readd Diriy of a wimpy kid.
ReplyDeleteThe difference in age groups. The difference between age and inappropriat stuff. Age groups and the age of the character. Well I dont read a lot so I would not know of any age approprist books for middle school kids.
ReplyDeletehow to identyfie are the title. books that would make it too advanced is bad words and racisim. you can tell that the ages are younger because the way the books whriten. harry potter.
ReplyDeleteA book that has hard words would be hard to understand by the young age. A book that will be to hard for me will the Hunger Games series. The books that are easy are the ones that have the pictures or the easy words. Diary of a Wimpy kid, Radiance and the Lighting Thief are good books for middle schoolers.
ReplyDeleteWell you could tell who it was meant for by the vocabulary and how big the book is. Like if it's very easy to read, and it doesn't have a lot of pages and it has picture then it would be probably for little kids. If it has like 9000 pages no pictures and hard vocabulary, then it'd probably for an adult. And for middle school kids I say a chapter back about a couple hundred pages long lik Percy Jackson or harry potter.
ReplyDeleteYou can tell what the audience is intended to be toward is by looking at the vocabulary (words that may be harder for younger children to read) or looking at the summary on the back. A book that would be very advanced for me would just have words that I would not know. You may know that the age is toward younger readers by seeing that it is very very easy to read (pop-ups) or the vocabulary is very simple. I have read Harry Potter and The Hunger Games
ReplyDeleteYou can look at the title and figure out what age is it meaning to be to.Or you could read the summery and parts of the book to figure that out to.Also some books I read that was babyish was little red riding hood and the tree little bears.
ReplyDeleteSome books that are to advance for me is, Harry Potter.The books that have very hard words will feel like 8 or 9 grade words.Caroline is one of my most favorite book.Kids younger than me will enjoy this.The begging of any reading artcle will get you into it.
ReplyDeleteThe words that are used and words that I don't understand, are ways that I can identify books that are to advanced for me. The topic or name of the book or story is another way of telling what age group the book is meant for. I can tell a book is meant for a younger group when the words used are small and easy to read and easy to understand. Books that I have read and think are age-appropriate are, 39 clues, Spider Wick and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
ReplyDeleteHow i identify the books prospective to a certain part of audience is Title, curse words or clean, Any violence, or assulting. I think any book with any of these are aimed at adults. Now some times this isnt the case, like hary potter, it has some cursing in it but it was aimed at 12 and up readers.
ReplyDeleteThe big words and the meaning of the book because what if they cant figure out the meaning it would be worthless amount of time reading it because its just a bunch of words thaat some of them you dont even know what they mean!
ReplyDelete